Texas woman busted for selling vibrators

[BERIGAN]

There was something like this that happened briefly in ATL at adult video stores....now, not that I would ever step foot in an adult video store but who gives a flying fuck about the vibrators??? That is the way to target adult emporiums? You can't go after them for mags or videos of people being beaten, (And I do mean beaten up, not the wholesome bondage out there )

Edited December 16, 2003 by BERIGAN

[patricia]

Holy Man!!! Here I was, thinking that we had come a long way from those ads in the Sears catalogue, decades ago. You may remember the ad. It had a picture of a young woman, holding a "personal massager for those hard-to-reach places", demurely against her cheek.

What does Texas think will happen if women have free access to vibrators??

Repent!!! The End Is Near!!!!

[JSngry]

So I guess you can't get a phallus in Dallas?

Dallas has phallus and stuff galore, but Cleburne makes meburn, they're just piss poor.

[Chuck Nessa]

Next will be the D cell manufacturers, then K-Y, then............

No smiles allowed in Texass.

[Rooster_Ties]

from www.austinchronicle.com, back in August of 2000.

Is That a Perfectly Legal, Anatomically Correct Condom Education Model, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

BY ERICA C. BARNETT 

August 11, 2000: Cock rings. Anal plugs. Nipple clamps. Dildos.

One of these things is not like the others. Can you guess which one?

Sure, they're all sex toys, but only one -- the humble dildo -- is legally verboten in the state of Texas. According to the Texas Penal Code, which details what devices good, law-abiding Texans may and may not purchase for their personal pleasure, dildos (and all other items made specifically to stimulate the genitals) can't be collected, bought, or sold in the state.

What's that you say? You think you bought a dildo here in Austin? That's an "anatomically correct condom education model" to you, young lady. Which you would already know if you had read the release form some local businesses have started making their patrons sign.

It's not that businesses are going to personally hold you to that promise, any more than head shops really think you're going to use that "water pipe" to smoke tobacco. It's just that they've been burned before. The law is a harsh, unforgiving mistress, but what it says is fairly simple: "Obscene devices" -- defined as anything, including a dildo, vibrator, or artificial vagina, "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs" -- can't be sold in the state of Texas (or in Georgia, for those keeping track), except for "a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose." If you can prove you're using those models to demonstrate how to put on a condom, that's fine. If you're thinking about using them for a more personal sort of education, that's not. (Oddly, the law doesn't prevent people from owning sexual devices; it just makes selling them illegal. But don't let your collection get out of hand: If you're hiding more than six dongs in your closet, that's intent to "promote" -- a class A misdemeanor.)

How much you can get away with depends on how strictly local police choose to enforce the law; nothing requires, for example, that a police department have a vice squad devoted to rooting out victimless sexual crimes in the first place. Austin's 20-officer vice squad was disbanded in 1998, and its responsibilities were devolved to the various street response units, on the assumption that different neighborhoods had different problems, not all of them directly related to so-called vice. According to APD Assistant Chief Rick Coy, who heads the department's organized crime division and oversaw a major reorganization of the department two years ago, the problems vary widely from area to area; in Northwest Austin, Coy says, the biggest problem is burglary; in most of East Austin, it's drugs.

Major long-term investigations involving sexually oriented businesses continue under the department's organized crime division, but an APD spokeswoman says most one-time "stings" on such businesses involve sexual behavior -- e.g., indecent exposure and prostitution -- not trade in sexual devices.

It wasn't always that way. As recently as the late Eighties and early Nineties, at least two high-profile raids were conducted on local shops by two prominent vice squad commanders. Forbidden Fruit was raided by the notorious Bubba Cates in 1989 (for offering dildos, vibrators, and other so-called contraband); and four years later, Planet K got stung by Cates' successor Jack Kelly, for selling a plastic inflatable sheep.

"They came flying through the door, busted in, and ransacked the place, and took everything they could get their hands on," recalls Lynn, the owner of Forbidden Fruit (who spoke to the Chronicle on the condition that her last name not be used). According to a news report in the Austin American-Statesman the day after the raid, the sting "netted about 400 sexual devices and the arrest of the store manager," Carole Vise. After taking a huge loss in the raid, the store got more careful about the packaging and display of its merchandise, most of which is marketed almost exclusively to women.

The irony -- that most sex crimes are committed by men, yet the people targeted by "obscene device" laws are predominantly women -- isn't lost on Lynn, who speculates that the men writing the laws "must have three-inch penises" to be so concerned about regulating female pleasure. Still, no one has talked seriously about rescinding the law since it was passed in 1973.

On the bright side, the dildo law -- or the "obscenity" ordinance, as puritans would have it -- has made adult-oriented businesses more creative about what they sell and how they sell it. Forbidden Fruit, for example, could probably get by, financially speaking, on its piercing and fetishwear businesses alone, not to mention its massive (and perfectly legal) collection of bondage gear. They're even branching out into e-commerce, but unlike such massive mail-order companies as Xandria and Adam and Eve, they won't let any "questionable" merchandise cross state lines. Instead, Lynn says, they'll focus on things you can find only in Texas: custom body harnesses, handmade leather restraints, and other toys the laws of Texas smile upon.

By the way, I stumbled on this article when I did a Google search on "Georgia sex toys illegal", after I read in another thread (on another board) about the Texas illegal vibrator case, that sex toys were (supposedly) illegal in Georgia too. Seems to be the case, at least according to this article (and at least back about 3 years ago). This was the first search-hit I got from Google, and it turned out to be mostly about Texas laws.

Edited December 17, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

Here's the full text of the Texas law, from www.dumblaws.com...

Law: Up to a felony charge can be levied for promoting the use of, or owning more than six dildos.

Country: USA

State: Texas

Citation: CHAPTER 43. PUBLIC INDECENCY

SUBCHAPTER B. OBSCENITY

§ 43.21. Definitions

(a) In this subchapter:

(1) "Obscene" means material or a performance that:

(A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex;

(B) depicts or describes:

(i) patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or

(ii) patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of the genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs; and

(C.) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.

(2) "Material" means anything tangible that is capable of being used or adapted to arouse interest, whether through the medium of reading, observation, sound, or in any other manner, but does not include an actual three dimensional obscene device.

(3) "Performance" means a play, motion picture, dance, or other exhibition performed before an audience.

(4) "Patently offensive" means so offensive on its face as to affront current community standards of decency.

(5) "Promote" means to manufacture, issue, sell, give, provide, lend, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise, or to offer or agree to do the same.

(6) "Wholesale promote" means to manufacture, issue, sell, provide, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, or to offer or agree to do the same for purpose of resale.

(7) "Obscene device" means a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.

(b) If any of the depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct described in this section are declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unlawfully included herein, this declaration shall not invalidate this section as to other patently offensive sexual conduct included herein.

Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1975, 64th Leg., p. 372, ch. 163, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1975; Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1974, ch. 778, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1979; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994.

§ 43.23. Obscenity

(a) A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he wholesale promotes or possesses with intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene device.

(b) An offense under Subsection (a) is a state jail felony.

(c.) A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he:

(1) promotes or possesses with intent to promote any obscene material or obscene device; or

(2) produces, presents, or directs an obscene performance or participates in a portion thereof that is obscene or that contributes to its obscenity.

(d) An offense under Subsection © is a Class A misdemeanor.

(e) A person who promotes or wholesale promotes obscene material or an obscene device or possesses the same with intent to promote or wholesale promote it in the course of his business is presumed to do so with knowledge of its content and character.

(f) A person who possesses six or more obscene devices or identical or similar obscene articles is presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same.

(g) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the person who possesses or promotes material or a device proscribed by this section does so for a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose.

Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1975, ch. 778, § 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1979; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994.

If I'm reading the fine-print correctly, this law was ammended as recently as 1993 and again in 1994. Sheesh!!! Don't the police and courts in Texas have anything more important to do??????

[Jazzmoose]

Now, be fair, RT...in Texas they think a cock ring involves bets placed on chickens...

[Claude]

Webb's attorney BeAnn Sisemore plans to file a motion to dismiss the case, because she says the law violates someone's right to own a sexual device, which is not illegal. Federal obscenity law overrides the state law anyway, Sisemore said.

Obscenity laws often vary from state to state and are often vague, so people don't know what is considered obscene until an arrest, said Lawrence Walters, a partner with the Florida-based law firm of Weston, Garrou & DeWitt, which handles First Amendment cases. Governments should not be able to regulate what consenting adults do in their homes, he said.

Critics also say enforcement of obscenity laws is inconsistent.

For example, last year a consultant for Slumber Parties Inc., a Passion Parties competitor based in Greenwell Springs, La., was stopped in East Texas for driving erratically. She was arrested after officers found 17 sex toys in her car.

Webb believes she was targeted by some conservative residents in Burleson, a community of nearly 26,000 people about 10 miles south of Fort Worth.

Woman's arrest brings Texas obscenity law into question (Houston Chronicle, December 15)

[ghost of miles]

Followup on this case deep in the heart--er, deep in some anatomical equivalent of Texas:

Texas Saleswoman Faces Trial for Selling Sex Toys 

Wed Feb 11, 8:22 AM ET 

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS (Reuters) - Joanne Webb is a mother of three, a Baptist, a booster of the town of Burleson, Texas, and a former schoolteacher. She also faces trial for being a smut merchant.

Webb, 43, was arrested in November by two undercover police officers for selling sexual toys and charged with violating Texas obscenity laws. She could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $4,000 if convicted.

Webb is a representative for Passion Parties, a California company marketing potions, lotions and sexual toys sold at gatherings that mimic Tupperware parties.

Women over 18 meet in a private home for what the company calls a "girl's night out of giggles and fun," during which products designed to enhance sex lives are sold.

It was not a secret in Burleson, a small town near Fort Worth, that Webb sold vibrators, edible creams and racy lingerie.

But not everyone was happy about it.

According to reports in the local media, police said a few residents, who they declined to identify, lodged complaints. A few prominent citizens with strong Christian beliefs were angered by Webb and her activities and asked police to investigate, local media reported.

Two undercover police officers posed as a couple trying to spice up their love life and Webb sold the woman a vibrator. Webb instructed her on its use and explained how it could enhance lovemaking.

That's where she got into trouble.

Texas law allows for the sale of sexual toys as long as they are billed as novelties, BeAnn Sisemore, a Fort Worth attorney representing Webb, told the Houston Chronicle before a gag order was issued by the judge presiding over the case. But when a person markets sex toys in a direct manner that shows their actual role in sex, then that person is subject to obscenity charges, she told the newspaper.

Webb said she turned to Passion Parties to supplement her family's income when her husband's construction business went into a slump.

"For women to become self-confident in their sexuality ... that's what I'm in this for," Webb told the Dallas Morning News before the gag order was imposed.

She added that because of her arrest, she has found herself in a role she never imagined -- a public advocate for allowing women and couples to make personal decisions about their sex lives.

SEX, LIVES AND PASSION PARTIES

Police and Johnson County prosecutors declined to discuss the case, even before the gag order was issued.

Gloria Gillaspie, a pastor at Lighthouse Church in Burleson, said she has met and counseled some women who had talked to Webb about the products she sold.

"It was causing problems with their marriages," she said.

Gillaspie said Webb and her family were asked to leave two churches in town. She did not name the churches.

"They didn't want to comply with what was really Christian conduct and that is why they were asked to leave those churches," Gillaspie said.

But James Brown, a member of the local chamber of commerce and an acquaintance of Webb's, told Reuters: "Most of the people in town support Joanne."

Sisemore said she wants to use this case to overturn obscenity laws in Texas and other states.

"I will fight this all the way with her," Sisemore told the Houston Chronicle. "This is the first time I have felt that my government has overstepped its boundaries."

Sisemore has said she plans to file a federal lawsuit challenging Texas obscenity laws, which she said are so vague that they could be used to prosecute anyone who uses or sells condoms designed to provide stimulation for sexual pleasure.

Patricia Davis, a 59-year-old grandmother and president of Passion Parties, said: "We are very proud of Joanne Webb. She believes in the mission of the company and she is doing a really nice job of representing us."

Passion Parties has been doing booming business. The company racked up $20 million in sales in 2003 and saw 30 months of consecutive growth above the 50 percent mark.

The company has representatives in every state and is doing some of its best business in California, New York and the Bible Belt, a section of the United States where Christian beliefs and clergy are influential.

"Women are looking for ways to enhance their relationship, enhance their sensuality and they have nowhere to go," Davis said.

When women get together at a friend's home to peruse body lotions, shower gels and battery-operated devices the company calls "passion toys," Davis said many are able to overcome embarrassment and talk openly about sex.

"We are doing a lot to help women, to help couples and to help families," Davis said.

[Jim Alfredson]

Wow. I missed this when it came around the first time. You can sell it as long as you don't actually say what it's for? Isn't that false advertising?

WTF?

[connoisseur series500]

Ghost, you drudged up this silly thread again?

[ghost of miles]

Ghost, you drudged up this silly thread again?

Yes, because the silly prosecutors are still prosecuting.

[Jazzmoose]

There's just something disconcerting about reading this thread and then seeing that vibes is reading it at the same time..

[rockefeller center]

Is selling cucumbers legal in Texas?

[couw]

Is selling cucumbers legal in Texas?

witwentrost

[rockefeller center]

You just taught me a new German word. I can't believe it.

Edited February 13, 2004 by rockefeller center

[couw]

You just taught me a new German word. I can't believe it.

don't tell deus

[Jim Alfredson]

You wanna take it outside?

[JSngry]

Is selling cucumbers legal in Texas?

Yeah, but I'm not sure if fucking them is.

[JSngry]

Just looked it up, and, yes, having sex with cucumbers IS legal in Texas, but only in maximum security penal institutions. Compassionate Conservatism indeed!

Women, however, may engage in intimate contact with cucumbers if the cuke in question is 4" or less, and can be placed inside an open Coke bottle without the application of any downward force. This is the so-called "Gherkin Proviso", and dates back to the days when the Texas Legislature was composed entirely of Caucasian males.

[Jazzmoose]

So in Texas, "a woman's right to choose" is a choice between staying legal and grabbing a smaller cuke? What a pickle!